Good cold snap here in southern B.C., Canada.
I hope it is long enough to kill the wave of pine beetles destroying the forests.
I look up on the clifftop behind us and there are two orange-colored trees among the half-dozen I can see up there.
Apparently, there is a wave of devastation that will quickly spread across the country.
The beetles spread by wind. If the really cold weather comes soon enough they freeze and die.
But, if it stays warm enough, long enough, they develop their own anti-freeze, and it takes a much longer cold spell to kill them.
It is bad enough to lose the forests, but worse to lose the oxygen the trees produce. The worldwide supply is too darn low as it is.
The Inuit in the North have been reporting the loss of the perma-frost, for years.
Many storms on the Pacific coast side of Vancouver Island. My hometown of Vancouver, B.C. has had several storms that have brought down trees everywhere.
One bright note on TV news...they have found specimens of a variety of pine tree they thought was extinct...in Australia. I think it is called a lemon pine.
This variety has survived 17 ice ages. Its needles/leaves contain 10,000 chemical compounds. A Canadian university is studying it.
I just hope it is resistant to pine beetles, etc.
Lots of info at
http://www.davidsuzuki.com
Dr. Suzuki is well-known in environmental protection circles.
Fledgling